Microsoft to simplify Windows Server Licensing

Microsoft will be simplifying the licensing for Windows Server products that are used in virtual machine environments. The company has made the decision to shift away from charging Windows Server System users licensing fees at installation and is instead moving to a model where users pay at the time of consumption. Microsoft is in the process of promoting and driving forward its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), and sees this move as paramount to achieving this.

This is an end-to-end strategy and not a point strategy. Microsoft believes that customers are looking for ways to adopt virtualization on the route to dynamic systems, and so our strategy is the Dynamic Systems Initiative, with dynamic systems the end game. And the way customers get there is very important," Bob Kelly, general manager of infrastructure server marketing at Microsoft, told eWEEK.